I was considering getting an A4 for a while, but I was detered by the slew of negative feedback from every audi owner i've met. Be ware, it's just a glorified VW, and has all the problems inherant with them. (Stuff just keeps breaking, volkswagon-syndrome).

I'm currently looking at a '97 Audi A4 2.8L. Anyone have one or anything to say about it? I need to get rid of my gas hog Ford Explorer! I would be interested in both positives and negatives!

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One of my friends bought one, a '97 A4 Quattro 2.8 V6, red, 5 speed manual. It had leather, a moonroof, the whole 9 yards. I actually test drove it. Nice car; A bit heavy, but good grip and nice sounds from the engine. It's pretty small in the backseat though.

My friend's had it for a year now, and he's had a lot of mechanical trouble with it. He himself is a car mechanic and he's told me that if he didn't have access to a lift, he'd probably have gotten rid of it by now. In particular he's had trouble with the Quattro drivetrain and electrical gremlins.

From his experience and that of two other Audi owners I know it seems that 90's Audis are pretty maintanence-intensive, and expensive to fix. However, they do seem to be well-built, have good performance and nice looks.

It probably won't get good gas mileage either. Better than the Explorer, but not by much.

Good to know. A friend of mine just bought one maybe 4 months ago so he really doesn't know the ins and outs of it yet. He claims its the perfect car but i didn't want to take his word on it. What i really want is a Volvo s60 but i can't seem to find any that will fit more in my price range. I guess i'll keep on looking even though that Audi seems like a great car.

So far its 2 negatives 0 positives anyone with something good to say about it?

I think the 90's audi's are more or less "hobby cars". If your a mechanic and you like to work on your car most weekends, then go for one. (The newer, 2000 and up seem to be pretty reliable compared to the 90's). If you want/need something reliable that doesn't need to be worked on every weekend then i'd personaly go with something else.

I have an '86 4000 Quattro. It was a lemon under warranty but has been
pretty good since then. I find the parts to be good but expensive (e.g
alternator and starter). I have over 300,000 km on it (almost 200k miles)
and the motor and tranny are still good.

Staff Member

If you want/need something reliable that doesn't need to be worked on every weekend then i'd personaly go with something else.

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Agreed. Reliability was only good from about 98 to 01, VW/Audi then took a major black eye with the ignition coil problem many of their cars including mine ran into.

I just had one of the ignition coils in my 02 VW Passat fail this week. This is the second time I have experienced a ignition coil failure, and all the coils had been replaced after the reliability issue was originally identified, so in principle the one that failed had already been changed once before. Of course, even the extended warranty had lapsed.

Still like my car, it's fun to drive and is generally reliable. I'm at VW QC.

My room mates during my college days were in the automotive technologies and they have always something to work on. The projects can be their own cars or their friends' cars.
They were able to fix most of the things go wrong with Chevy, Ford, Dodge, and other domestics makes; but, they had tough times figuring out the electronic wiring of Audi (90's models). They used to comment the quality standards for those 90's Audi models are not so stellar.

IIRC, the 2.8 A4 in 97 was a V6. Stay the hell away from this engine. The 1.8L turbo and then the 2.0L turbo are much much better engines and get much better gas mileage.

Ben

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I disagree. The 2.8 V6 was a fantastic engine, very smooth and torquey for its size.

The Turbos get bad gas mileage if you push them, so unless you drive slow you won't see a big difference in fuel economy. That's not to say that the turbo engines are not good engines (they're great too), they're just not fuel-sippers either.

I didn't meant to trash Audis in my first post - they're great cars - but don't expect them to be trouble free like a Camry. They are definitely a car for the enthusiast who won't mind getting them serviced/repaired a little more often.

I drive a '03 1.8T A4 Quattro. My family got it in January of '03 and now they're letting me drive it while I'm away at college. It's got about 30k miles on it, and we've never had any kind of mechanical problems with it. Actually, I just took it back to the dealer for the first time a few weeks ago ago to fix the first problem I've had with it: A blown amp in the Bose sound system. They were really nice to work with and everything was under warranty, which lasts for 50,000 miles I believe. It has been extremely reliable, never not started, and handles extremely tight. This is the first Audi I've ever come in contact with though, so I can't comment on any of their previous models.

My dad has an 2003(?) Audi 1.8T, and it's phenomenal. I've only had the luxury of being a passenger, but from a passengers perspective it couldn't be more comfortable. From my knowledge, my dad hasn't had any serious problems with it but it's his pride and joy at the moment. Quattro is very smooth, and great if you live somewhere that it snows. Just remember you'll probably have to use premium fuel, and this car won't be nearly as fuel efficient as a Honda for example.

Audi and any other German car are not known for being reliable. I have a 98.5 A4 1.8T Quattro and I love the car to death, but reliable it is not. I have 160,000 miles on it and so far all the belts, waterpump, tensioners, ect. have been replaced twice already. I have replaced turbo(the ECU is also chipped), both front axels because the inner CV boot ripped and eventually all the bearings fell out. My Airbag light and ABS light is on. Also a rear wheel bearing. There is some other stuff but you can find everything you need to know about the A8 at www.AudiWorld.com. So if your looking for reliable i say get a Honda.
And if anyone wants to know if I will be buying another Audi in the future the answer is YES!

I used to until recently own the fore runner to the A4 it was the Audi80 2.0 16v sport (1992) it was a dream up until the cam belt broke and the valves shattered the head, I now drive a Honda accord which is very boring, I'm considering buying the A6 now.

As to people who think Audi's/ German cars are unreliable heck I had trouble free motoring for years until my cam belt broke [my fault for not having it changed] I had absolute confidence when I pushed the key in and started the engine, which I didn't have with British/American/European cars[excluding Germany] every now and then you get a lemon even from the most prestigious makes, my Audi [and friends Audi's] has convinced me that they are quality cars, they may look a little sedated but the performance makes up for it as well as reliability. Mine did 0-60 in 7.4 sec. and topped 140 mph and I never felt safer than in this car, also MPG was better than average even though I usually hammered it. I would not go for another Audi if it was fault ridden, I tried the Honda and it drives like an old mans car, it's just too safe [R-Type=Boy racer] so I would still go for the Audi [would love an S6]
[Just my honest opinion]

As to people who think Audi's/ German cars are unreliable heck I had trouble free motoring for years until my cam belt broke [my fault for not having it changed] I had absolute confidence when I pushed the key in and started the engine, which I didn't have with British/American/European cars[excluding Germany] every now and then you get a lemon even from the most prestigious makes, my Audi [and friends Audi's] has convinced me that they are quality cars, they may look a little sedated but the performance makes up for it as well as reliability. Mine did 0-60 in 7.4 sec. and topped 140 mph and I never felt safer than in this car, also MPG was better than average even though I usually hammered it. I would not go for another Audi if it was fault ridden, I tried the Honda and it drives like an old mans car, it's just too safe [R-Type=Boy racer] so I would still go for the Audi [would love an S6]
[Just my honest opinion]

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They are a reliable car you just have to keep up the maintenance. ie. belts, hoses, using the correct oil and chainging it every 3-5000miles The Audi engines are basicly bulletproof is just the parts attached to it that go. There is a guy on Audiworld who has a 98 A4 and it has seen over 100 track days and he has over 200,000 miles on it.
But your right, every now and then they do put out a lemon.
My next Audi is hopefully going to be a 2002 Nogaro w/blue Alcantara interior S4.

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